<p>The purpose of this study was to investigate what factors facilitate young ice hockey players’ continuation or dropout from sport. The study considers active players’, dropout player’s, coaches’ and parents’ perspectives. The main model that is used in the study is push/pull/anti-push/anti-pull framework (Fernandez, Stephan & Fouquereau, 2006). Other models used in the study are the developmental model (Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004) and the career transition model (Stambulova, 2003). The interviews were conducted with eight participants including three active players, one dropout player, two coaches, one parent to an active player and one parent to a dropout player. Semi-structured interview guides based on Athletes Retirement Decision Inventory (ARDI) (Fernandez et al, 2006) were used. The results showed that friends and fellowship in the team were the biggest factors that facilitate for a player to continue in ice-hockey. Underlying factors that can influence a player to dropout are high amount of hard training and a lack of organization in the club. Factors outside ice-hockey that can influence a player to dropout is his will to focus more on school and socializing with friends outside the sport.</p>

The development of imagery has been found in intervention studies. No previous study was found with the purpose of the development of imagery experiences without the influence of an intervention. Therefore the present paper monitored five ice hockey players’ imagery experiences during a season and examined the following objectives: a) The dynamicity and stability of the ice hockey players’ imagery patterns; b) The factors influencing the development of ice hockey players’ imagery experiences; c) Individual differences concerning the imagery experiences. A combination between qualitative and quantitative methods was used in the study. The results showed that the players experienced both stable and dynamic imagery patterns. Based on the Action theory (Nitsch, 1985), personal, environmental and performance/task factors were shown to influence the stability and dynamicity of the players’ idiosyncratic imagery experiences. The results of this study show why imagery experiences are changed and offer great implications to applied work. / Forskning har visat att visualisering kan vara dynamisk över tid. Ingen studie har dock funnits som studerat dynamiken av visualisering utan påverkan av en intervention. Denna studie undersökte därfor fem ishockeyspelares visualiseringsupplevelser under en säsong utan påverkan av en intervention med följande syften: a) dynamiken och stabiliteten hos ishockeyspelarnas visualiseringsmönster; b) vilka faktorer som påverkar utvecklingen av visualiseringsupplevelserna; c) individuella skillnader i visualiseringsupplevelserna. En kombination av kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod behandlades i studien. Resultatet visade att visualiseringsmönstern upplevdes vara stabila och dynamiska över tid. Utifrån Action Theory (Nitsch, 1985) visade studien att personliga, miljö- och prestations/uppgiftsfaktorer påverkade stabiliteten i spelarnas visualiseringsupplevelser. Resultatet från denna studie visar varför visualiseringsupplevelserna förandrades över tid och är en fördelaktig kunskap för idrottspsykologer att tillämpa i det pratiska arbetet med visualisering.

One image can have various functions for one individual (Nordin & Cumming, 2005). Therefore this study took a qualitative approach to examine the following purposes: (1) To examine ice hockey players’ understanding of imagery, (2) to examine ice hockey players imagery experiences and (3) to examine ice hockey players’ strategies to improve their imagery. Eleven elite ice hockey players (m = 23,09) participated in this study, they were interviewed using the instrument IPIES (Weibull, 2008). The result showed that: (1) ten players had a correct and limited understanding for the concept imagery, (2) ten players experienced imagery and (3) all players in some way wanted improve their imagery. The players experienced voluntary, spontaneous and involuntary imagery. Involuntary had a negative effect that support previous findings by Weibull (2005), further this study support Cumming and Hall (2002) that some athletes experience spontaneous imagery. The results were discussed in relation to previous imagery research.

Nowadays efficiency measures are more and more important because the price of the energy is increasing every year. Moreover, saving energy it is also important for decrease the environmental impact. Kastvallen is a hockey arena built in 1997 that cools the hockey rink with electric compressors. The changing rooms are heating by using district heating. Actually the total invoice of electricity is above the 800000 SEK. Meanwhile the district heating invoice reaches the 60000SEK. The aim of this project is reducing the amount of the electricity and heat invoice promoting smart energy improvements. The improvements proposals can be divided in three sections; energy savings of the changing rooms, efficiency increase of the compressors and dehumidifier energy savings. For heat the tap water and the changing room’s ventilation it is suggested to take profit from the heat released at the condenser and so reduce its heat load requirements. For this proposal two different configurations are studied. In order to increase the efficiency of the compressors the possibility of reducing the condenser temperature will be studied. Three proposals will be studied to carry out this commitment; Installing a condensing temperature control, installing a evaporate cooler and having a snow storage. Finally, one of the largest consumers of electricity in Kastvallen ice hockey rink is the dehumidifier. The current dehumidifier works with a desiccant wheel. The desiccant material extract the moisture from the processed air flow, after that the desiccant has to be reactivated with ‘fresh air’. This reactivation air needs to be heated 95ºC, so the waste air released after the reactivation of the desiccant is air at high temperature. The first proposal is preheat the reactivation air with the hot waste air in order to reduce the heating requirements, conducting this proposal the total money saved each year would be 41811 SEK with a Pay-back around 1 year. The second step is studied the possibility of heating the air with district heating, taking into account that district heating is three times cheaper than electricity, conducting this proposal the total money saved each year would be 45629 SEK with a Pay-back around 1 year. The last proposal is to combine preheating and heating with district heating, conducting this proposal the total money saved each year would be 61553 SEK with a Pay-back around 1.6 years. All the previous energy improvements proposals are studied with empirical and analytical methods and using the knowledge gained during the previous years of studies. The study concludes that the best proposal for the dehumidifier is combine the preheating and heating with district heating. In addition of the money saved, this measure allows to save 2.71 Tm of CO2 each year. For the refrigeration cycle, the study concludes that installing a controlled temperature control is the best option if the price of that is lower than 334726 SEK. If not the best option is heating the rooms and the ventilation with the condenser of the refrigeration cycle. These measures could reduce between 8% and 20% of the total energy invoice plus a considerable reduction of CO2 emissions. Evaporative cooling and snow storage would be studying after with the data of the first year of the condensing temperature control; if it is installed.

This thesis seeks to understand how and if the popular claims that hockey is an integral part of the culture in Toronto and Montreal are referenced, oriented to, and/or negotiated in everyday life. Taking the cases of the moves of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens from Maple Leaf Gardens and the Montreal Forum, respectively, the thesis asks: What can these similar cases tell us about the culture of the cities in which they occurred and, if it is possible, in what ways can the culture of the cities (as a shaping force) be made recognizable in the discourse generated in, around, and by the moves? The perspective taken is a 'radical interpretive' approach, involving a critical blend of interpretive theories and methodologies - including semiology, phenomenology, hermeneutics, and dialectical analysis - that aim to reflexively question the themes that the cases themselves bring to light. The thesis thus concerns itself with issues of cosmopolitanism, globalization, and modernity as well as the concomitant questions of identify, commitment to place, and practical social action in the modern city.

The purpose of this study was to investigate what factors facilitate young ice hockey players’ continuation or dropout from sport. The study considers active players’, dropout player’s, coaches’ and parents’ perspectives. The main model that is used in the study is push/pull/anti-push/anti-pull framework (Fernandez, Stephan &amp; Fouquereau, 2006). Other models used in the study are the developmental model (Wylleman &amp; Lavallee, 2004) and the career transition model (Stambulova, 2003). The interviews were conducted with eight participants including three active players, one dropout player, two coaches, one parent to an active player and one parent to a dropout player. Semi-structured interview guides based on Athletes Retirement Decision Inventory (ARDI) (Fernandez et al, 2006) were used. The results showed that friends and fellowship in the team were the biggest factors that facilitate for a player to continue in ice-hockey. Underlying factors that can influence a player to dropout are high amount of hard training and a lack of organization in the club. Factors outside ice-hockey that can influence a player to dropout is his will to focus more on school and socializing with friends outside the sport.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin -- La Crosse, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-37).

Using feminist perspectives, the treatment of women's participation in leisure sport within leisure studies and the sociology of sport, is explored. The review traces the progress made, in moving enquiry away from questions of distribution, towards questions of relations between women and men and how these are reproduced and enacted in leisure and sports experiences. Epistemological and methodological issues f acing feminist researchers in leisure studies and the sociology of sport are outlined. The research explored the dynamics between women's uses and control of time, their framing and definition of leisure sport in their own lives, past and present. A cumulative approach, using several research methods, was developed. Forty women, twenty badminton and twenty hockey players, were research partners. Interactions with each included: use of interview pro formas for personal profiles, participation parameters and weekly time profiles; personal life histories; and questions designed to link, check and provide perspective. The methods were effective for exploring changes in meanings of leisure and sport activities over time. The main findings included the centrality of "others" in women's uses of time and sport experiences, and recurrent themes of autonomy and control, recovery, personal fulfilmont, tensions between commitments and constraints, and sport as "cultural capital". The findings are related to issues of public policy and provision in leisure and sport.

No description available.

This study compared the plantar force distribution between forward ice hockey skating and treadmill skating. Four varsity hockey players from McGill University (age = 22.1 +/- 1.2 years, height = 1.8 +/- 0.1 m, mass = 82.2 +/- 8.6 kg) skated on ice surface and on a specialized treadmill at three velocities (22, 24 and 26 +/- 0.5 km/hr). Results showed higher plantar forces were seen during treadmill skating prior to push off and this discrepancy was due to consistently larger forces in the fore region of the foot. This phenomenon was speculated to be the result of differences in skate stability during ice and treadmill skating. With respect to the loading dynamics, the heel region was the same during ice and treadmill skating.